Vivendi has offered to pay EUR 2.36 billion in cash to buy a 60 percent stake in advertising group Havas from Groupe Bollore. Described as "strategic", the transaction would see Vincent Bollore, chairman of Vivendi and its dominant shareholder, move to consolidate his media assets and pursue an integrated approach for the newly created group, "in an environment in which content, distribution and communications are converging". The deal ends months of speculation about Bollore’s ambition to create synergies with the Havas group, in which his son Yannick Bollore is CEO.
Coinciding with this announcement, Vivendi reported financial results for the first quarter, which continued to be negatively impacted by the performance of its Canal Plus subsidiary in France. Group EBITA decreased 30 percent (- 34% at constant currency and perimeter), while underlying group revenues increased 3 percent, supported by double-digit growth at Universal Music. The outlook for the full year has remained unchanged, with revenue growth guidance of "more than 5 percent" and EBITA expected to rise by around 25 percent.
For Canal Plus, the negative EBITA trend is expected to reverse in the second half of the year, as the group begins to see signs of a recovery in France and to benefit from the cost reduction plan announced in August. Launched in mid-November, the refreshed TV proposition in the French market delivered the first positive effects in March, when the number of new pay-TV subscriptions offset the number of disconnections for the first time in many quarters, said the company.
The overall customer base in France reached 8.08 million, including 2.94 million indirect subscriptions via the wholesale partnerships signed with Free and Orange (which started in 2016 from end-September and early October respectively). In the year to March, Pay-TV direct customers dropped by 401,000 to reach 5.15 million. Internationally, Canal Plus Africa continued to deliver strong subscriber growth, which supported a 29 percent rise in revenues for the African markets.
